Twenty first century witchcraft

When Anna Parkinson was told that her brain tumour was inoperable, it was the beginning of a new life, which enhanced her health, happiness and purpose, says Jamuna Rangachari

Anna : Accessing a whole new world through healing

It was 2002. Anna Parkinson, then 48, a news and current affairs producer with the BBC, where she had been working for the last 20 years, had not a care in the world. She had just taken a sabbatical to write about her ancestor, apothecary John Parkinson, herbalist to Charles I.

Barely two weeks later, she was assailed by headaches, dizziness, improper vision and rushed to hospital. After many investigations, she was told that she had a tumour that was embedded very deep in her head, pressing on the right side of her carotid artery. The location made it inoperable. She desperately contacted many doctors but none of them were able to help. Was death inevitable?

Meditation beckons

It was then that she remembered that her sister had made her attend a session of talks by healer Martin Brofman, founder of the Body Mirror System of Healing. She had heard how he had healed himself completely of terminal cancer, and in the process developed his therapy. Though sceptical, but having no other alternative, she went to meet him.

Brofman waited until she uttered the magical words, “I want to be healed.” Then he explained his perspective to her. He looked upon the body as a point of consciousness. He elaborated: “Tensions within the body are tensions within the consciousness, and the parts of the body where you have disease, or tension, tell a story. A tumour on the pituitary tells a story of not following your passion. You have to focus on what you want for you.” He added, “The resolution of this problem is in your brow chakra, to do what you want and to do it well, and to earn a living out of that. That’s what you must do.” Gradually, he analysed each of her chakras, which had a profound effect on her consciousness.

Anna remembers, “By the time he walked me to the door I was drinking in his words. ‘We are all divine. In our culture it is considered insane if you say it but in fact it’s true. We are all part of God, or the Divine, or whatever you want to call it.’”

The process

There was an even greater shock waiting for her when she got back to writing her book. The first page began, ‘I never lived with my father.’ She had written this because the inspiration for her book about John Parkinson, was a book by him written in 1629 which had been one of her father’s most precious possessions. She saw in it her profound unconscious need to establish links with her father that had never existed for her in his lifetime, as her father and mother had separated.

It became evident that her creative work and her illness were all part of the same fabric of life.

Back home, her husband, for whom his GP’s word was the law, dismissed Brofman’s method as 16th century witchcraft. When she mentioned it to Brofman, he retorted, “It’s not 16th-century witchcraft. It’s 21st-century witchcraft!”

The healing

One crucial aspect of her healing journey was her movement from thinking to feeling. She says, “My experience with healing so far had led me to many strange sensations, and unfamiliar feelings, but I needed to understand what was happening, to relate it to what I already knew. I was more inclined to trust thinking than feeling. Martin was the person who bridged that gap for me, and made it possible to relate healing to my feelings and to what I already knew about the way my body worked. The Hawaiians say that ‘healing happens between thinking and feeling.’”

Anna has now come to understand that every natural thing exists on several different levels at once. She explains, “At the most fundamental level that we call ‘reality’, is the tangible mechanical body, or cell, or bone, or tree, or rock. This mechanical level obeys the laws of classical physics such as gravity and friction. Medicines, whether they are herbal or pharmaceutical, operate on this level, and so does surgery. Above this level and existing in the same time and place is another intangible level. In humans this is the level of thought, feelings, imagination, and it has more power than the laws of mechanics over matter. This layer operates by different physical laws, more like the laws of quantum physics, than classical physical laws. Above these layers is another layer, which is more powerful than either of the layers below. This is the layer of karma, fate, natural law or whatever you want to call it. This is a layer that we as humans cannot understand, but we can communicate with it. It is the layer of prayer, gods, angels or spirits.”

From a patient to a healer

Today, the tumour has reduced in size, and its impact on her life has almost ceased. Earlier, because the tumour pressed on the 6th nerve controlling her right eye, she had severe double vision. Now, she can see straight. She also corrected the weak eye muscle through some tricky surgery to which she responded very well, thanks, she believes, to her healing work. She has now been signed off by both the neurosurgeon and the eye hospital who have told her that her eyes are better than they were a year ago.

At 59, Anna now has a practice in Kent and London in the UK where she offers Body Mirror healing, and Hawaiian lomilomi which is an energy healing massage. In a nod to her famous ancestor, she writes on the healing power of plants and traditional medicine.

You can read more about Anna at www.annaparkinson.com.

Bio: Jamuna Rangachari is a writer who has authored two books for children, and compiled and interpreted Teaching Stories-I and II for Life Positive